How to Get Top Jobs and Find the Best Locum Tenens Company for You
So, you’ve decided to make the leap to locums, but you’re just not sure where to begin…we’ve got answers! Here’s how to find the best locum tenens company and assignment for you.
You can always dive right in and see what happens (you may get lucky!), or you can do some research to ensure you find the locum tenens company that suits you best – one that offers an array of locum tenens assignments that fit your needs.
The locums life can be full of adventure, rewards and fun, but at first, it can be intimidating to know where to turn. This guidance should help!
Finding the Best Locum Tenens Company
To find the best locum tenens company for you, start by listing what you feel is most important.
Typically, the best locum tenens agencies:
- Care about your job satisfaction, interests, preferred location, schedule and quality of life.
- Feature options across the country (if you want to travel) or nearby (if you want to stay home).
- Have many years of experience in placing locum tenens providers.
- Offer other types of job opportunities, like temp-to-perm and permanent placement.
- Are highly rated by both healthcare agencies and providers.
- Are respected across the industry and have the awards and accolades to show it.
- Have skilled employees with expertise in recruiting, licensing, credentialing, travel and more.
- Place in all types of facilities – hospitals, rural health, government, private practice, etc.
- Walk you through the entire process and line up jobs for you before you end your current one.
- Offer perks like referral bonuses, malpractice coverage, training, travel, housing and more.
- Allow you to bring pets or family members on assignments when possible.
- Feature a range of assignment lengths, from days to months.
- Have technology and streamlined processes in place to make life easy for you.
Choosing the Best Locum Tenens Assignment for You
When you’re confident you’ve found a locum tenens agency you can trust, it’s time to think about what you want in a locum tenens assignment.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- In what location do you want to work? Near home, only in certain states or across the nation?
- What about your schedule? Weekdays only, or are you open to working nights or weekends?
- Do you want to work on short stints or longer assignments?
- What practice settings do you prefer? Hospital, surgical center, nursing facility, government clinic, rural health, etc.?
- Would you rather have a light or heavy patient volume?
- Do you prefer a fast-paced environment or a more low-key atmosphere?
- What are your compensation requirements?
- What is most important to you in a company’s culture and values?
- What reputation does the facility have?
- How much autonomy of practice do you want?
- Is networking important to you?
- Are you hoping to work in a leading facility and learn innovative techniques?
- Is your goal to gain exposure and experience in different specialties or facilities?
- Are you aiming to try out a practice to see if it’s a permanent match?
- Do you want to work with underserved patient populations?
- Would you rather have face-to-face patient time or work via telehealth?
- Will you pair work and travel and use your off hours to explore a new location?
- Will you be bringing family along? A pet?
- What will the lodging be like for the assignment?
- How will you get there? Drive? Fly?
- Once you’re on assignment, how will you commute to and from work?
Talk with Your Recruiter
Once you’ve selected your agency and thought through what’s most important to you in a locum tenens assignment, talk with your recruiter. It’s essential to be clear about your wants and needs but flexible. Be honest, but keep an open mind. You may be surprised at where this locums life takes you!
Talk with a locum tenens recruiter today.
